tsa-la-tsi-s-gi gv-do-di ka-ne
dance
- with - snake
DANCES
WITH SNAKES
"CONSUMER ACQUISITION SITE"
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tsa-la-tsi-s-gi gv-do-di ka-ne dance
- with - snake
DANCES
WITH SNAKES "CONSUMER ACQUISITION SITE"
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Kentucky Geode Field Trip [Click on the pictures for a larger view]
We left Broken Arrow, OK bright and early the morning of August 29th (4:00 am) and headed for Kentucky to join members of the Catawba Valley club for a weekend of geode and fossil collecting near Danville, KY. we drove the 860+ miles to my sister's place in Ezel, KY, about 100 miles east of Danville, in around sixteen hours, most of that in heavy rains and thunderstorms. We spent the night at Ezel, and the following morning, Brandon and I headed for Danville and the proposed meeting spot at around 6:00 am, arriving in Danville at around 8:00 am. The rain had set in again, and kept up for some time that morning as we met with the others at the Holiday Inn Express. I recognized Mike right away from the picture on his book cover, and we met Chris, Opal, Harry, Ernie, and several other members of the Catawba Valley club. After a short pow-wow to decide which site to collect at first, we hit the road headed south to the property of Mr. Phillips and the creek behind his house. The rain let up by the time we arrived, and although the creek was running pretty good, there was no shortage of geodes to be had, they were everywhere, ranging from the size of a golf ball to larger than a basketball. In the following picture you can see a large one sitting on the back of the truck.
After lunch, we all met back at the Holiday Inn around 2:00 pm, and it was decided to go look for fossils at an Ordovician outcrop about three miles south of Danville. There wasn't much parking space available so Mike and I parked west of the bridge below the road cut, while others parked alongside the cut in the narrow space there. As you can see from these pictures, this is a large cut, and there are several fossil bearing layers exposed in the hard shale. Some specimens were found weathered out, while others had to be extracted. That's Mike, Chris, and Opal in the third picture.
After about an hour, the rain caught up with us again, and while everybody else headed for dry quarters, Mike, Chris, and myself and Brandon stuck it out for a while. Brandon and I watched Mike make rubble out of a rock shelf that had collapsed, a rather large piece of limestone cap rock that had fallen from the upper layers of the cut, looking for calcite vugs containing dogtooth calcite. We checked out the rubble across the road and found Chris a nice slab of fossiliferous limestone full of nice brachiopods to take home, a nice display specimen. Eventually, the rain got the better of us, and Brandon and I finally decided to head back to Ezel for the night. Mike and Chris were still poking around the outcrop when we left. The following morning we got up bright and early, and loaded up in the Suburban, myself, Brandon, Travis, (my 16 yr old, six-foot-seven offspring), my wife Regina, and Butterbean (the six-week old holy terror of a kitten). We met back in Danville at 8:00 am with the group and headed for the McClure farm at Crab Orchard, KY. The weather held out for us most of the morning while we collected more geodes, many similar to the ones from the previous day with a few interesting exceptions, Some of these had boytroidal chalcedony in them.
If I didn't know better, I'd say I was getting a dirty look in that last one... Harry and Ernie got busy after a while and decided to get out the pipe cutter and crack a few geodes. This gained some attention as everyone was getting tired of trying to crack them with hammers, and this seemed to do a rather nice job of splitting them open without doing a lot of damage.
Eventually, we had to vacate in a hurry, as there was a large severe thunderstorm rolling in on us. We could hear the thunder and see lightening strikes not too distant. Everybody loaded up pretty quick. and headed up out of the creek bottom to beat the rain in from the field. Most of us made it back to the road before the serious rain hit, Travis stayed down at the second gate to close it for stragglers (no names here!) We made plans to meet at the Wal-Mart in Stanton at 2:00 and head for our final stop of the day at Halls Gap, KY, for geodes, hopefully with Millerite inclusions. Again,
this is a rather large road cut at the top of a long grade.
Now doesn't he look happy in
this picture? Below are some more pictures of the time spent with great bunch of rock-hounds one weekend in Kentucky. I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend than with friends. (Left to right) [Brandon] [Brandon and Mike]
[Chris, Ernie] [Mike, Harry, Chris, Ernie] [Mike (look closely at the bank, this is the spot where the fluorescent geode came from), Harry, Chris & Opal, Ernie]
The
following picture is a bucket of geodes from the upper reaches of the cut
similar to the fluorescent one Mike posted, with luck there will be some of the
same in this batch. The
following is one of the geodes from the shale that was found at the bottom of
the cut, this one has quartz, boytroidal quartz, pyrite crystals, and under
close inspection, a couple of needles of Millerite. All in all, everyone had a great time, and I am personally looking forward to the opportunity to join the group next year for another geode splittin' good time in Kentucky. Ya'll come back now, ya'hear?
Copyright 2003 Virgil G. Richards
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HAVE YOU BEEN THE TARGET OF A SCAM LATELY? DON'T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN! AUGUST 20TH, 2008 - BROKEN ARROW, OKLAHOMA
If you are not on your toes all of time, you could be the target of a scam or con. Last evening while filling up with gas at QT in Broken Arrow a blue PT Cruiser pulled across in front of my truck. A casually dressed black man stepped out and in a hushed voice asked if I was interested in buying a laptop computer. He proceeded to tell me he had three or four of these for sale for $250 each. Claiming they were brand new Sony Vaio laptops. My first question was "Are they hot?" and I informed him I wasn't interested. He pressed on asking if I would pay $200, then $150. "I don't buy merchandise from the trunk of a car" I informed him. He then asked how much I would be willing to pay, and went back to his car, retrieving a package from the back seat that appeared to be a box about the size of a laptop, wrapped in brown paper, taped up excessively with packaging tape, and a photocopied ad from Office Depot advertising a Sony Vaio for $2099. In the process of getting the package from his car, he covered it with a sheet before bringing it to show me.... A lot suspicious... He handed me the package and returned to his car to retrieve a laptop from the back seat, again covering it with the sheet so no one else could see what he was doing. The laptop was an older Compaq, that he claimed a lady had dropped, but the ones in the packages were Sony. He very quickly returned it to his car, not letting me see more than a glimpse of it under the sheet. Meanwhile, I was hefting the supposed "new" packaged laptop, the entire time suspecting a scam more so than stolen merchandise. I strung him along a little while, squeezing the package (it was too lightweight, and compressed easily) Now knowing I was actually holding a package with nothing substantial inside, I told him I might be interested if he showed me what was in the box. He very quickly retrieved it from me, still trying to get me to pay $150 for it, as he gradually put distance between us getting back to his car. That pretty much ended the conversation. I told him again, "show me what's in the box, I might be interested." No go, he got back in his car and quickly went looking for another mark.
I had meanwhile finished filling my tank, and drove to a strategic location in the parking lot to watch him and his accomplice as they drove about the lot, approaching literally everyone coming and going, I quickly dialed 911 and reported their activity, gave a description of the vehicle and what they were doing, stressing that I firmly believed they were scamming people with empty boxes. I waited for police to arrive, but before they did, the vehicle exited the QT, and drove down the street. I followed at a distance, again calling 911 dispatch to report they had moved to another location, near Chili's and Buffalo Wild Wings. Actually, they had gone to the Lowe's parking lot and by the time officers arrived, had already approached several patrons in the lot. As an unmarked Dodge Charger pulled into the BWW lot, I pointed them to the Lowes. Two other marked units quickly converged on the lot, and as the PT Cruiser approached another mark in front of the store, they hit the lights and surrounded the vehicle! Too cool! I watched from the lobby of Lowes as they talked to the "suspects", and got the passenger out to open the back of the vehicle. After some minutes, a couple came out of the store and saw that the police were questioning the pair, and hollered at them "What are they doin'? Tryin' to sell ya a laptop?" One officer motioned them over and asked if they had been approached, to which they answered yes. The officer asked if they would be willing to make a statement, and a citizens arrest on suspicion of fraud. When they said they would, one of the suspects started cursing at them, this just added resolve to the couple, and they immediately made the citizens arrest. (This was necessary because the officers had no evidence of a crime otherwise.) At this point the two were arrested on fraud charges.
As it turns out, the packages were Fed-X boxes filled with newspaper... They had empty boxes, brown paper bags, tape, scissors, and flyers in the back to make more fake packages. Officers also found bolt cutters and a few personal items in the vehicle, along with three or four bogus packages, and the old, useless Compaq laptop they were using as a prop for their con. They did not find any weapons or drugs fortunately, but the passenger had a felony warrant for his arrest in Florida (the officer said that unfortunately, Florida would not extradite). Officers said they also had a fair amount of cash on them, leading officers to believe they were semi-successful with their con game. Both suspects were from Alabama, and the PT Cruiser had Alabama plates. Both are now sitting in the Broken Arrow jail, the PT Cruiser is impounded, and at least for now, they are off of the street.
Do you think those who paid $150-$250 for a box of newspaper will report it to authorities? Probably not.... Wouldn't you feel a bit foolish for falling for the scam? How about the fact that anyone with common sense would know they were about to purchase stolen merchandise, had the package actually contained a new $2000 laptop...
If you buy merchandise, especially new or near new expensive merchandise off the street, or from the trunk of someone's car, for pennies on the dollar, you should know you are about to buy stolen merchandise, and will be supporting crime. So don't do it! Don't be a victim! Report this kind of activity and save some other fool from making a mistake. These are tough times and if we don't stand up as citizens and do our part, then we are part of the problem!
In all honesty, it felt good to help get these two apprehended! And yes, I gave a written statement, and if asked, would gladly testify against them in court!
Virgil
© 2006 - DANCES-WITH-SNAKES.COM VIRGIL G. RICHARDS
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